152 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT IOWA CITY IOWA 

BEFORE THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP IOWA 

ON MAY THE TWENTY -FIFTH 

NINETEEN HUNDRED TEN 



BY 

LAENAS GIFFORD WELD 



THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 
IOWA CITY IOWA NINETEEN HUNDRED TEN 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 






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ON THE WAY TO IOWA 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT IOWA CITY IOWA 

BEFORE THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP IOWA 

ON MAY THE TWENTY -FIFTH 

NINETEEN HUNDRED TEN 



BY 

LAENAS GIFFORD WELD 



THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 
IOWA CITY IOWA NINETEEN HUNDRED TEN 



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ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

I feel honored in being invited to give the 
address at this opening meeting of The State 
Historical Society of Iowa — a meeting in some 
sense complimentary to our visitors. We extend 
greetings to the members of the Mississippi Val- 
ley Historical Association and congratulate them 
upon the success which has attended their or- 
ganization from the beginning. This immediate 
success of the Association gives abundant evi- 
dence of the enterprise and sagacity of its pro- 
moters, among whose names we are proud to note 
that of our own Professor Shambaugh. But, as 
with wise men in general, they have bent their 
efforts along the line of opportunity ; for Amer- 
ican history is today being largely written, and 
is being writ large, here in the Mississippi Val- 
ley. We may say indeed, not boastfully but in 
truth, that world history is making here — not 
the history of battles and of dynasties, but of 
industry and public policy and finance and edu- 
cation — of all that makes for the uplift, the 



6 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

generation and the regeneration of the world's 
people. 

The field within which this Association is to 
exercise its activities is, from the standpoint of 
physical geography, the most remarkable on the 
face of the earth. Stretching from the Allegha- 
nies on the east fifteen hmidred miles to the foot- 
hills of the Rocky Mountains on the west and 
from the Gulf of Mexico four thousand miles 
northward to the Arctic Ocean, it presents a vast 
plain, unbroken by high mountain ranges, im- 
marred by desert wastes, but diversified in its 
climate and its products, fertile beyond compari- 
son, abounding in mineral wealth, watered by 
countless streams, and comprising the most mag- 
nificent system of fresh water seas in the world. 
Toward this region the tide of world empire has 
been setting for three quarters of a century and 
is not even yet at its height. The financier may 
turn his eyes toward Wall Street or Thread- 
needle Street, the student may plan his pilgrim- 
age to Cambridge or Leipzig, the artist may long 
for the inspiration afforded by the Louvre or the 
galleries of Florence, but the teeming millions 
of the over-crowded places of the world, with 
hands restless to do and hearts ready to dare, 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 7 

turn eager faces toward this great central basin 
of North America. In the centre of this vast 
tract, inidway between the mountain barriers 
to the east and to the west, midway between the 
tropic sea to the south and the frozen sea to the 
north, stands Iowa. And the way thither — will 
it interest you for a few moments ? 

Ever since our school days, Columbus and De 
Soto have been names to conjure with. The one 
found the way to the new world, the other made 
known something of its vast extent. But the sig- 
nificance of De Soto's discovery of the Missis- 
sippi in 1541 was quite unheeded and his expedi- 
tion was remembered only on account of its dis- 
astrous ending. So far as authentic records indi- 
cate, a century and a quarter passed by before 
any white man again looked upon the '* father of 
waters". Meantime our Atlantic seaboard was 
dotted with English, French, and Dutch settle- 
ments — Catholic or Huguenot, Puritan or Cava- 
Her. Meantime, too, the armed merchantmen of 
Europe "poked their noses", as it were, into ev- 
ery bay and up every navigable stream opening 
to the Atlantic, from Tierra del Fuego to Green- 
land, in search of a passage through to the Pa- 
cific, which should shorten the route to southeast- 



8 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

ern Asia — to ''Far Cathay". But for ten thou- 
sand miles the American Continent presented an 
impassable barrier. To penetrate this barrier 
was, indeed, the great geographical problem of 
the two centuries following the landfall of Co- 
lumbus. Hudson ascended the river which bears 
his name in the hope of finding an easy portage 
to some tributary of the Pacific. The same quest 
lured Captain John Smith up the James River 
and Cartier up the St. Lawrence. 

The crude astrolabes used by the early naviga- 
tors enabled them to detemiine latitudes with 
reasonable accuracy, but the determination of 
longitude at sea requires some form of chronom- 
eter, and timepieces had not yet been brought 
to any degree of perfection. And so, even after 
Sir Francis Drake had sailed far up the Pacific 
coast of North America, there was no adequate 
conception of the breadth of the continent. 
Hence it was but natural that, hearing from 
the Indians of a "great water" to which the 
streams over on the western slopes of the Alle- 
ghanies made their way, the colonists on the 
Atlantic seaboard should identify this "great 
water" with the Pacific or South Sea and imag- 
ine that upon reaching it the way to Cathay 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 9 

would be much easier than by way of the Straits 
of Magellan or 'round the Cape of Good Hope. 
The ''great water" to the west was, of course, 
the Mississippi, but all this was for many years 
understood but vaguely, if at all. The real ex- 
tent of the hinterland of the American colonies 
was but dimly comprehended and not at all 
appreciated until long after these colonies had 
achieved their national independence. But a far 
different situation prevailed among the French 
colonies to the north as we shall presently see. 

Singularly enough the history of the Missis- 
sippi Valley began with Jacques Cartier's voy- 
age up the St. Lawrence. Fishing fleets were 
now frequenting the waters about Newfound- 
land, occasionally ascending the river for the 
winter and carrying on a profitable fur trade 
with the Indians. It soon became evident that 
this trade was well worth developing. The sup- 
ply seemed inexhaustible and furs soon came to 
be sought by the French in the north as eagerly 
if not as rapaciously as was gold by the Span- 
iards in the south. Champlain came up the river, 
bringing colonists who founded Quebec, in the 
same year that the English founded Jamestown. 
Whence came this supply of furs ? And whence 



10 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

came this great river, mightier ten-fold than any 
of the rivers of Europe ? The first of these prob- 
lems appealed to Champlain's superiors, the lat- 
ter to Champlain himself. He took but little 
interest in his colony except as it served him as a 
base for his explorations. He heard of a great 
sea to the west and would reach it and find there- 
by the way to Far Cathay. The St. Lawrence 
itself was blocked by the Iroquois Indians 
of northern New York, whose hostility to the 
French, and particularly to Champlain, was 
fierce and unrelenting. So he pushed his canoes 
up the Ottawa until its waters enmeshed with 
those of a lake called Nipissing. From this lake 
he followed a river, now known as French River 
down to the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The 
Oreat Lakes lay before him, but it was not his to 
•explore them. Indeed he had been preceded thus 
far by Franciscan missionaries who were already 
•established among the Huron Indians at the 
head of this same bay. 

Then followed two decades of confusion and 
reorganization of the French colonies. The great 
Richelieu next assiuned their management and, 
though Champlain was reappointed governor, 
commerce and trade were monopolized by a com- 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 11 

pany known as the Hundred Associates; while 
the Jesuits were virtually in charge of all other 
interests, temporal as well as spiritual. The 
Franciscan missionaries were peremptorily ex- 
cluded from the country — their work, repre- 
senting a quarter of a century of intense devo- 
tion, being ignored and even discredited. Forth- 
with began the publication of that remarkable 
and invaluable series of documents known as the 
Jesuit Relations. In these we find recorded 
from year to year, in the language of the devoted 
fathers themselves, the principal events and 
items of interest in connection with the various 
missions established, not only in the vicinity of 
the settlements along the St. Lawrence, but in 
the far Northwest on the remotest borders of the 
Oreat Lakes as well. 

Champlain seems merely to have been in 
eharge of the garrisons stationed at Quebec and 
Three Rivers, but was at the same time free to 
promote further explorations. This he did, 
though now too old to again set out upon the 
wilderness trail himself. He dispatched Jean 
Nicollet on a voyage westward through the 
waters of Lake Huron to obtain more definite 
infoiTxiation regarding those countries which, 



12 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

through current rumors, were identified as the 
Asiatic Orient. 

It is recorded that Nicollet took with him 
upon this journey, carefully sewed up in an oil- 
skin bag, a handsomely embroidered mandarin's 
cape or cloak, in order that, when he should ap- 
pear at the Chinese court, he might be respect- 
ably attired. The enterprise was one for which 
Nicollet was well prepared. For fifteen years 
he had lived among various Algonquin tribes, 
acquiring their languages and inuring himself 
to the hardships of the wilderness. 

The Jesuits had arranged to reestablish the 
mission to the Huron Indians at the head of 
Georgian Bay, from which the Franciscans had 
been so summarily recalled. Each year the canoe 
fleet of the Hurons came down the Ottawa laden 
with furs for trade with the French on the St. 
Lawrence. In July of 1634 it was that the mis- 
sionaries Brebeuf , Daniel, and Davost embarked 
with this annual canoe fleet on its return journey 
to the Huron country. Nicollet was one of this 
motley company, but the situation was far less 
novel to him than to his fellow countrymen of 
the black robes. The journey up the Ottawa was 
both difficult and dangerous. This was ''on the 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 13 

way to Iowa", so let me quote to you what the 
Jesuit Relations say of it. 

''Of the ordinary difficulties", writes Brebeuf 
in his report (J. R. 1635), "the chief is that of 
the rapids and portages. Your reverence" (ad- 
dressing Le Jeune, the superior at Quebec) ''has 
already seen enough of the rapids at Kebec to 
know what they are. All the rivers of this 
country are full of them notably [this river. 
It runs not over]^ "a smooth bed, but is continu- 
ally broken up, rolling and leaping in a frightful 
way, like an impetuous torrent: and even, in 
some places, it falls down suddenly from a height 
of several fathoms. . . . Now when these rapids 
or torrents are reached it is necessary to land and 
carry on the shoulders through woods and over 
high and jagged rocks all the baggage and the 
canoes themselves." This narrative, continued 
in Brebeuf 's own words for the most part liter- 
ally translated, affords a fair sample of the style 
and spirit of the Jesuit Relations. "In some 

1 Portions enclosed in brackets are not rendered in accordance with 
the original, but the meaning is in no way modified. For example, 
in this instance, in place of this river the original has the Biver St. 
Lawrence after that of the Prairies is passed, which doea not convey 
a definite or even a correct impression to the reader not familiar with 
the names applied to these streams at the time referred to. 



14 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

places where the current is . . . strong . . . 
the savages get into the water and haul and guide 
. . . their canoes with great difficulty and dan- 
ger ; for they sometimes get in up to the neck and 
are compelled to let go . . . saving themselves 
as best they can from the rapidity of the water 
which snatches the canoe from them and bears 
it away. This happened to one of our French- 
men Avho remained alone in the canoe, all the 
savages having left it to the mercy of the tor- 
rent. [He was in a sorry plight but at last his 
life was saved] and the canoe also with all that 
was in it." No wonder that Nicollet had sewTi 
up his mandarin's cloak in an oilskin bag! 

"I kept count of the number of portages", 
continues Brebeuf, ''and found that we carried 
our canoes thirty-five times and dragged them at 
least fifty : . . . Another difficulty is in regard to 
provisions. Frequently one has to fast, if he 
misses the caches that were made [by the sav- 
ages when on their way down], and even if they 
are found one still has a good appetite even after 
indulging in them ; for the ordinary food is only 
a little Indian corn coarsely broken between 
stones and sometimes taken whole in pure water. 
It is no great treat. . . . Add to these difficulties 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 15 

that one must sleep on the bare earth, or even on 
the hard rock, . . . and must walk in the water or 
mud and in the frightful entanglement of the 
forest, where the stings of an infinite number 
of mosquitos and gnats are a [continual tor- 
ment], . . . But ... we all had to begin by these 
experiences to bear the cross that our Lord pre- 
sents to us for his honor and for the salvation of 
these poor barbarians. In truth I was sometimes 
so weary that the body could do no more, but at 
the same time my soul experienced very deep 
peace, considering that I was suffering for God. 
No one knows it if he has not experienced it". 

It was under such difficulties as these that Nic- 
ollet 's journey was begun; but Brebeuf speaks 
admiringly of him as being ''equal to all the 
hardships endured by the most robust savages." 
But their tiresome ascent of the Ottawa was 
finally accomplished and the canoes glided out 
upon the waters of Lake Nipissing; then down 
French River to Georgian Bay and on to its 
head, where the Jesuits immediately established 
themselves in the place formerly occupied by the 
Franciscans. They were soon joined by Nicol- 
let, who had tarried for a time with the Indians 
on an island in the Ottawa {Isle des Allumettes) . 



16 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

After procuring a suitable outfit and engaging 
seven Hurons to act as guides, Nicollet bade 
adieu to Father Brebeuf and his associates and 
set out on his voyage westward. His commission 
required him to explore such countries as he 
might be able to reach and to make commercial 
treaties with the people dwelling therein. The 
party coasted along the eastern and northern 
shores of Lake Huron, passing through the 
dangerous channel to the north of the Mani- 
toulins until they found themselves tossing about 
In the eddies below the Sault Ste. Marie in water 
through which now floats a commerce whose 
tonnage is three times that which passes Port 
Said and Suez. 

But for Nicollet the scene seems to have had ^ 

no special interest. He must have heard from j 

the Indians of Lake Superior, but makes no men- f 

tion of having visited it. The water coursing 
past his camp at the foot of the rapids was fresh j 

and gave no promise that the * ' salt sea ' ' of which • 

he was in search lay bej^ond. Thus did he miss 
discovering the greatest of all the Great Lakes. 
Dropping down St. Mary's Strait he rounded the 
upper peninsula of Michigan and passed on 
through the Straits of Mackinac. The "second 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 17 

lake of the Hurons," as Lake Michigan was for 
a time called, lay before him. Boldly following 
the northern shore of this new-found sea Nicol- 
let entered Green Bay, land-locked by the pres- 
ent State of Wisconsin. He pushed on to its 
head, where he for the first time encountered 
tribes of Indians with whom he could not con- 
verse. He believed himself upon the outskirts 
of the vast Chinese empire. Being invited to a 
council with the chiefs he donned his mandarin's 
cloak and approached, discharging his pistols in- 
to the air. The impression was all that could be 
desired, but he soon discovered that he had not 
yet reached China nor even its outskirts. He was 
well received, however, and passed on up the Fox 
Hiver. 

After traversing Lake Winnebago he found 
liimself once more among Indians of the Algon- 
quin stock whose language was quite intelligible. 
From them he heard of a "great water" which 
could be reached in three days by a short portage 
from the Upper Fox River. The portage re- 
ferred to was, of course, that into the Wisconsin 
River at what is now Portage City. Had he tak- 
en this "three days' journey" he would have de- 
bouched, not upon a new sea as he supposed, but 



18 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

upon the upper course of the Mississippi at 
Prairie du Chien opposite McGregor, in Clayton 
County, Iowa. The "way to Iowa" had been 
pointed out, but was not to be followed up imtil 
forty years later. Why Nicollet missed this op- 
portunity, as he had ah'eady missed that at Lake 
Superior, is not in the least clear. What he did 
do was to travel overland to the south to visit, 
and establish friendly relations with the great 
nation of Illinois Indians, obtaining at the 
same time some general notion of the extent of 
Lake Michigan. He was at Three Rivers (on the- 
St. Lawrence) again in July, 1635. How the 
''great water" of which he had heard was re- 
garded by his contemporaries is evident from 
this passage quoted from the Jesuit Relation of 
Vimont for the year 1640. "Sieur Nicollet, who 
has advanced farthest into these distant coun- 
tries has assured me that had he gone three days'' 
journey farther from a river which issues from 
this lake" (the second lake of the Hurons, or 
Lake Michigan) ''he would have found the sea. 
Now I have strong suspicions" [that through 
this sea there would be a passage toward Japan 
and China]. 
But the discoveries of Nicollet were not soon to- 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 19 

be followed up. Scarcely had he returned when 
Champlain died. Then came a succession of in- 
competent governors. The Iroquois took advan- 
tage of the situation and devastated the country, 
utterly destroying the Huron nation (1649). 
Such of the Jesuit missionaries as had escaped 
death were hastily recalled. The fugitive Hu- 
rons and Ottawas betook themselves to the re- 
motest shores of the Great Lakes or sought ref- 
uge at Quebec, while others became amalgamated 
with the Iroquois themselves. Even the fortified 
settlements on the St. Lawrence were in danger. 
Trade was, of course, completely demoralized. 
Many of the wood-rangers (Coureurs de 'bois), 
cut off from the settlements, found their only 
safety in plunging deeper into the great interior 
wilderness. 

As soon as some degree of order had been re- 
stored explorations were pushed farther than 
ever to the northwest for the purpose of reestab- 
lishing the fur trade, which had almost entirely 
fallen away with the destruction of the Huron 
and Ottawa nations. In' 1660 Radisson and his 
brother-in-law% Grosseilliers, launched their ca- 
noes upon Lake Superior and followed the south 
shore to the end of the lake. Here they lo- 



20 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

cated the remnants of the Huron and Ottawa 
tribes, secure in these distant regions from the 
fury of the Iroquois. It is clauned that the 
brothers, in their overland explorations, came 
upon the Mississippi; but, while it may be rea- 
sonably inferred, this is not definitely confirmed 
by Radisson's journal. 

However, one thing in this journal is of special 
interest to us as lowans. At the close of the nar- 
rative of his explorations, Radisson gives a list 
of the various Indian tribes of which he had 
knowledge and many of whom he had personally 
visited. Among these we find mentioned the 
Maingonis. These were probably the Moingonas, 
who at this period dwelt along the Illinois River, 
though they were found in Iowa not many years 
later. Our capital city is named from the river 
Des Moines, i. e. La riviere des Moingonas. I be- 
lieve this to be the earliest appearance of the 
name in history. 

Among other missions soon established in the 
far northwest was one at La Pointe, near Bay- 
field, on Lake Superior, in northern Wisconsin, 
near the trading station occupied eight or nine 
years before by Radisson. This was the direct 
successor of the old Huron mission at the head 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 21 

of Georgian Bay; for, as just explained, it was 
to this region that the Hurons and Ottawas 
had fled in their terror of the Iroquois. Here 
was stationed Father Jacques Marquette, a 
young man of about thirty years and one of the 
most picturesque characters among the Jesuits 
in North America. 

Indians from far and near resorted to these 
mission stations to meet the French fur traders 
on their yearly visits. Marquette, at La Pointe, 
heard repeatedly from members of the Illinois 
tribes of the "great river" by which they came 
thither to trade — the same ''great river", he 
had no doubt, which was believed by some geog- 
raphers to flow into the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of 
California), by others into the Gulf of Mexico. 
He would explore it ; but, before the opportunity 
presented itself, the Sioux Indians, the ''Iro- 
quois of the West", became openly hostile and 
the dispirited Hurons and Ottawas fled again — 
the Hurons to MacJiiUwiackinac (Mackinac) and 
the Ottawas to the Manitoulin Islands. Mar- 
quette went with the Hurons and established his 
new mission at St. Ignace, at the head of Lake 
Michigan, on the main land of the northern pen- 
insula of Michigan just opposite Mackinac Is- 



ML0^^L^ 



22 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

land. At about the same time another important 
missionary and trading station was established 
at the head of Green Bay, in Wisconsin. 

Talon, the capable intendent of New France, 
was now devoting his best energies to establish- 
ing the claim of the mother country to that re- 
gion in the west, the real extent of which was be- 
ginning to unfold itself with the simultaneous 
advance of missionary and fur trader. He meant 
to occupy this region and secure control of its 
great water-ways. Little recked he of Far Cath- 
ay. He dreamed of a vast new empire for France. 
The English, mere grubbers of the soil, were to 
be confined to the region between the Atlantic 
coast and the Alleghanies, while Spanish influ- 
ence was to be thwarted by the establishment of 
French colonies on the Gulf of Mexico. 

A splendid expedition was organized under 
Saint Lusson, acting as lieutenant, and sent to 
Sault Ste. Marie to take formal possession of 
the whole interior of North America in the name 
of the French King, Louis XIV. But Talon was 
determined to give the claim made in behalf of 
his sovereign a more substantial foundation. He 
resolved to discover and map the course of that 
mysterious '* great river" concerning which such 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 23 

'Conflicting but insistent rumors had been current 
ever since the da3^s of Champlain. To execute 
his purpose he chose Louis JoUiet. 

At this juncture, however, Talon disagreed 
with the governor and both were recalled. The 
new governor, Comte de Frontenac, at once 
adopted the ideas of Talon and proceeded to their 
execution. Jolliet was confirmed in his appoint- 
ment. 

The way to Mackinac, to which place Jolliet 
now journeyed, was not new to him. He was al- 
ready a path-finder, having only recently demon- 
strated the continuity of Lake Ontario and Lake 
Erie with the other lakes of the system. At 
Mackinac he was joined by Father Marquette, 
•still in charge of the Huron mission at St. Ig- 
Bace. It was early spring. The ice had just left 
the straits. They made instant haste to prepare 
for the journey. Five companions were chosen 
— all Frenchmen and experienced wood-rang- 
ers. Their two canoes were selected with unusual 
care. They were of birch bark, stiffened with 
^edar splints. Though large enough to carry 
safely the seven voyageurs and their provisions 
of smoked meat and maize, besides blankets, 
camp utensils, guns, instruments, and a quantity 



24 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

of trinkets to serve as presents to the Indians, 
they were still light enough to be easily portable. 
Jolliet and the five wood-rangers were dressed 
in the buckskin suits then worn by frontiers- 
men; but Marquette retained his long black 
Jesuit's cassock and cumbered himself with no 
weapon save his rosary. 

On the seventeenth of May, 1673, they pushed 
off their canoes into the crescent-shaped bay at 
St. Ignace, rounded the point to the south, and 
headed westward along the northern shore of 
Lake Michigan. The voyageurs must have felt 
the quickening influence of the changing season. 
They paddled all day, relieving one another by 
turns. Trolling lines were set to catch fish. At 
twilight they landed to prepare for the night. 
The sand of the beach still retained the heat of 
the midday sun. Each canoe was hauled up be- 
yond the reach of the waves, turned over and 
propped up by one edge to serve as shelter. One 
of the party collected drj^ drift wood for the 
fire. Another cut forked sticks and set them up 
in the sand to hold a cross bar upon which the 
kettle was hung. Hulled corn was cooked; the 
fish were broiled in the embers; and Marquette 
blessed the simple meal. Then, sitting 'round 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 25 

the camp fire, the tired explorers smoked their 
pipes and rested. Such was the routine of their 
voj^age on Lake Michigan. 

Pushing on day after day, along the route fol- 
lowed by Nicollet thirty-nine years before, the 
party soon entered the Bale des Puans, later 
known as Grande Baye, now Green Bay. They 
turned into the Menominee River and visited 
the village of the Indian tribe of the same name, 
which name signifies wild rice. Here they heard 
dreadful tales of the country and the river which 
they were about to visit and were urged to go 
no farther. A few days later they were welcomed 
at the mission at the head of the bay, still con- 
ducted, as it had been founded, by Father Claude 
AUouez. After making some final arrangements 
here they ascended Fox River, crossed Lake 
Winnebago, and entered the devious upper 
course of the same stream. On the seventh of 
June they had reached the neighborhood of the 
portage to the Wisconsin River, first made 
knowTi by Nicollet. 

Guides were secured to conduct them to the 
point at which the portage was easiest. This 
point reached, they carried their canoes and bag- 
gage a mile and a half over a marshy prairie 



26 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

and, parting with their guides, launched upon 
the Mesconsing (Wisconsin), whose current 
might bear them to the South Sea, the Gulf of 
California or the Gulf of Mexico, they knew not 
which. 

The navigation of the Wisconsin presented no 
serious difficulties and ten days later, on the sev- 
enteenth of June, the explorers floated out upon 
the broad surface of a mighty river, which they 
must have recognized at once as the "great 
water" which they had been sent to find out and 
explore. They were in the shadow of the almost 
mountainous bluff at the foot of which lies the 
quaint little town of South McGregor, the Bing- 
en of the Mississippi. Beyond lay the rolling 
prairies of Iowa ; but little did they, or their suc- 
cessors for a century and a half to come, dream 
of such a commonwealth as ours. The depth and 
breadth of the channel and the swiftness of the 
current gave them some notion of the extent of 
the territory to which they had gained access. 

The canoes were turned down stream and, as 
they floated on, the voyageurs justly marvelled 
at the grandeur of the prospect, which developed 
new features at every turn of the great river. 
For days the easy voyage along the eastern bor- 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 27 

der of Iowa was continued without meeting the 
slightest trace of human habitation. Late each 
afternoon they landed to stretch their cramped 
limbs and do their simple cooking; then care- 
fully extinguishing the fire they floated some 
miles farther on and anchored after dark at a 
distance from the shore, leaving one of the party 
on guard while the others slept. At sunrise they 
were under way again. Once those in Mar- 
quette's canoe were frightened by a huge catfish 
that threatened to damage their frail craft. The 
great sturgeon that "rushed through the water 
like hungry sharks" also excited their wonder 
and apprehension. Buffalo and deer came down 
to the water's edge and wild turkeys were often 
seen. Such was the routine of their voyage upon 
the Mississippi. 

Not a canoe, not a hut or a landing place, not 
a sign of human habitation was seen until the 
twenty-fifth of June, when they discovered, hu- 
man footprints at the water's edge on the west 
bank. Leaving their companions to guard the 
canoes, the two leaders landed, quite unarmed. 
A trail was found conducting up the bank and 
into the interior. They followed it for five or 
six miles over a fine rolling prairie to a village. 



28 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

or rather a group of three villages, situated near 
a considerable stream. Their reception was 
ceremonious but cordial. The Indians were of 
the Illinois nation and had crossed the Missis- 
sippi to escape the prowling bands of Iroquois 
whose devastating raids were feared even as 
far west as this. The villages were called Peou- 
aria, after the tribe which occupied them. An- 
other village called Moingouena is also set down 
upon Marquette's map at some distance, though 
he makes no mention of it in his narrative. The 
first of these names survives as Peoria, the now 
populous district of which this city is the centre, 
being the proper country of the Illinois tribes. 
The second name, Moingouena, has, as we have 
already explained, been corrupted into Des 
Moines and applied to the stream supposed to be 
the one upon whose banks the villages visited by 
Marquette were located. Careful study of his 
map and a comparison of latitudes, however, in- 
dicate beyond reasonable doubt that the site in 
question was near the mouth of our own Iowa (or 
Cedar) River. Such being the case, the town of 
Wapello, in Louisa County, cannot be far from 
the point at which was held this first conference 
on Iowa soil, if not in the Mississippi Valley, be- 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 29 

tween the white man and the Indian. It is fit- 
ting, therefore, that this Association should hold 
one of its earlier meetings here at the legal and 
historical "head of navigation" of this, the 
Iowa, river. 

The Indians begged the Frenchmen to remain 
with them, assuring them that the sun had never 
shone so brightly nor their tobacco had so rich 
a flavor as since their arrival. An elaborate ban- 
quet was served, the four courses being in order 
hulled corn, fish, dog, and buffalo marrow bones. 
(And, gentlemen, you will enjoy an equal hos- 
pitality in Iowa to-day). Presents were ex- 
changed. The calumet was smoked with due 
formalities and given to Marquette as a peace 
token to be displayed as occasion might require. 

So hospitable was their entertainment that it 
was the end of June before the explorers felt 
that they could with propriety return to their 
canoes and resume their voyage. Some days 
later they passed the mouth of the Illinois, then 
that of the Missouri. This last stream must 
have been at high water for it is described as a 
"torrent of yellow mud sweeping in its course 
logs, branches and uprooted trees." They seem 
to have been duly impressed by the vastness of 



30 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

a continent that could send forth two such mighty 
rivers. The mouth of the Ohio was next passed 
and still they allowed themselves to be borne 
along by the swift current day after day. How- 
ever, the Indians became less friendly. Strange 
tribes were encountered with whom not even 
Marquette could converse. They were regarded 
with suspicion and, at times, were even in peril ; 
but the peace caliunet never failed to secure 
them safe passage in the end. The long voyage 
back, against the current of the river, was be- 
coming a matter for serious consideration. Fi- 
nally, at the mouth of the Arkansas River they 
determined to turn back. Thej^ rightly regarded 
the problem of the Mississippi as solved. To 
go on would avail them nothing and might, they 
thought, lead to their capture by Spaniards and 
the consequent sacrifice of the results of their 
expedition. 

On the seventeenth of July, just two months 
after leaving St. Ignace and one month after the 
discovery of the river, they began the tedious 
journey home. Week in and week out they toiled 
on, the midsummer sun beating fiercely upon 
their backs as they plied the paddles. Marquette 
was seized mth a painful illness from which he 



ON THE WAY TO IOWA 31 

never wholly recovered. Upon reaching the 
mouth of the Illinois River they were assured 
that the easiest route to Mackinac lay up this 
river and by portage into Lake Michigan {Lac 
des Illinois). Their toilsome journey now be- 
came, relatively, a triiunphal pageant under the 
escort of the friendly Kaskaskias, a tribe of the 
great Illinois nation. 

The route took them up the Des Plaines River, 
past an isolated bluff which traders later named 
Mont Jolliet and which marks the site of the 
modern town of Joliet. Forty miles farther on 
they made the Chicago portage. Even then 
Jolliet noted the strategic importance of this 
portage and later indicated, in his report to 
Frontenac, the ease with which the Mississippi 
Valley could be opened to commerce by means of 
a canal connecting the Chicago and the Des 
Plaines rivers. Bidding adieu to their escort 
they once more launched their canoes upon Lake 
Michigan and made their way along its western 
shore to the post at the head of Green Bay. Here 
they were again in touch with civilization — 
such as the New World then afforded. 

The way to Iowa — to the whole Middle West, 
as well — had been discovered. But between this 



MIMMHIMiiMMiaHflMHaH 



32 ON THE WAY TO IOWA 

discovery of Iowa and the beginning of its prop- 
er history there is an interval of a century or 
more. During this interval the region was fre- 
quently and even continuously visited by white 
men. Its broad prairies, the Mesopotamia of the 
New World, were doubtless well kno\\Ti to the 
French and American traders who by turns 
coursed up and down the Mississippi and the 
Missouri in quest of buffalo skins. 

But the men who have made Iowa and our 
Middle West what it is to-day came, not by way 
of the Great Lakes from Canada, nor up stream 
from the French colonies of Louisiana; not in 
canoes laden with baubles such as cheat the sav- 
age, but in emigrant wagons with wives and 
children and bringing implements of agriculture. 
They came swarming through the passes of the 
AUeghanies and brought with them into this new 
land the spirit of the American Revolution — the 
spirit of the free state founded upon the Chris- 
tian home. 



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